Seems like forever since Homestead but finally Nascar is back! We start the season off with the biggest race of the season, the Daytona 500. I love this race, well I love all superspeedway races. Even though there seems to be more and more nascar content coming out there is still a huge edge because people cannot bear to play the safe superspeedway strategy. Trust me it works. It has worked for the truck series and the xfinity series this weekend and it worked in every superspeedway Cup race last season. Next week, this article will talk about practice and track history and similar tracks. However this week it is all about roster construction and putting yourself in the best spot when the wrecks happen and they will. The drivers for cash you want are drivers with high floors. So for cash you tend to focus on the drivers starting in the back. You will leave thousands and thousands of salary in your lineups this week. There are some great gpp plays starting 20th-31st. I can see people playing some of those in cash, but I probably won’t be one of those people. Let others play the drivers starting closer to the front and make the mistakes and beat themselves. Do not overthink cash game strategies at superspeedways.
Brendan Gaughan
Everybody’s superspeedway darling is kicking off his final season running his superspeedway schedule here at Daytona. Brendan is a superspeedway ringer. Anyone who was playing with Karma last season knows we play Gaughan anytime we could and everyone remembers his flip in Talladega in the fall race. Brendan hangs back all race to avoid the big one and then moves up with about 20 laps to go and gets himself i postition to get the best finish possible. Brendan starts 39th and should be the most popular driver on the slate. I say should be but with some of the heavy hitters starting just inside the top 30 I could see people ignoring Brendan to pay up for them. Remember in cash games it is so important to have a safe floor and Brendan could only lose 1 place differential point from where he starts so the upside for him is extremely high.
Corey Lajoie
Corey is another driver who will be hanging around in the back to make sure he is around for the end of the race. If you look at his results in the #32 car last season he finished 18th, 11th, 6th and 7th at superspeedway races. Lajoie starts 36th and is another high floor driver that you want to target not only in cash but gpps as well. Its about lineup construction and setting yourself up to survive. Lajoie and Gaughan are staples in your cash lineup, period.
Justin Haley
Haley is a fringe cash game option for me. Starting 33rd there are a few drivers that have a safer floor then Haley. However Haley has better equipment and actually won the July race in Daytona last year. Well that was helped because it was called due to rain, it proves that Haley knows how to race at Daytona. He avoided the wrecks today in the Xfinity race and finished 6th. If you don’t feel comfortable with one of the other drivers starting farther back, I believe Haley is a good substitute.
Kyle Busch
I could sit here and list more drivers starting from the back, but I feel like I have made my point pretty clear on cash lineup construction so I want to highlight some of the great gpp plays we have this weekend. Kyle Busch was running great in the duels then got pushed out of line and went to the back and really never recovered. Whether that was on purpose or not we don’t know. However Kyle now starts 28th and he has potential to win this race. He is also a very aggressive driver and could end up with a tore up race car by the end. Kyle provides a nice floor and I see him getting some ownership in cash from people who don’t like the back marker strategy. I love Kyle for gpps, not so much for cash.
Clint Bowyer
Clint is another driver who has great upside and the talent to maneuver through the field with a chance to pick up his first Daytona 500 victory. Clint starts 29th and is another driver who could be considered for cash games but doesn’t have the extremely safe floor that others do. I think Clint is another driver who is great for gpps but will probably avoid him in cash.
Ryan Preece
Ryan was a rookie last season so we don’t have a lot of data to go off of but one thing that stood out was how well he did at superspeedways. He had finishes of 8th, 3rd, 32nd and 18th. Take the second Daytona race out of the equation and he shows that he is a driver with great upside by avoiding the wrecks and being around at the end. Preece starts 31st and has a pretty safe floor. I won’t play him in cash but think he should get some ownership in cash games.
I will put out my final thoughts tomorrow morning which is basically a cheat sheet of a list of drivers and where I think they belong, cash, upside, gpp, fade. I also will have some MKF plays on our podcast at 12 eastern and will drop some in our Nascar Discord in the morning. If you have any questions I can be found on twitter @davidjr831. If you want to get into our Nascar Discord or access to my core plays click on the link below.
https://dfskarma.com/shop/all/nascar-draftkings-fanduel-core-plays-season-pass/
